marble tower

[Farmerdave]

Has anyone on here built the marble tower? I have the plans. Purchased long ago, don't remember from where. It seems very complicated. It is about 41" tall and 18" dia. at the base. If anyone has built this I am looking for advice and suggestions.
Thanks,
Dave

[6270_Productions]

I have built a "Marble Machine".  They are . . . ummmmm . . . complicated?  


I did not use any plans.  It just kind of developed, as I went along.

What can I do to help you?

[fredhargis]

OH, WOW!

[MichaelS]

Holy cr@... that is amazing. Did you do a build story on that? Would love to know the history, why as much as the how


Even the single shot reveals a great deal of well thought out details that makes me want to know more!

Michael

[clockman]

this guy has many interesting ones
https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswan...ery=marble

[6270_Productions]

A build thread?  No I never did, but I can provide some information on the “why”.
 
This is “Milton the marvelous marble machine”.
 
My wife used to teach kindergarten.  She is retired now.  Anyway, when she used to teach them their letters – one per day, she would use that letter and describe something with that letter.  You know, “A” is for apple, etc.
 
I have always wanted to build a marble machine – just because.  So I decided to build Milton.
 
He needed to be big so the children would be impressed.  (I guess it works with older folks too.)  He needed to have a “rickety rack” on the rear – that back-and-forth channel that you always see on marble machines;  he needed a spiral just because I like to see marbles going in a spiral; a xylophone; and he needed bells and spinning wheels – because . . . why not?  It was much like building a house and then doing the plumbing.  The frame had to be big and impressive.  Marble machines work with potential energy and gravity.  He had to be tall to take advantage of the potential energy available from the height.  Once I decided what things I wanted to happen within the machine, it was a simple(?) matter to just make pipes, tubes, and troughs to move the marbles from one mechanism to another.  Of course, it was important to remember (much like plumbing) that “stuff” runs down hill – too much of a slope and things don’t work well, not enough slope and things don’t move at all.
 
Because the children would be playing with it and it was big, there needed to be some type of “system” to prevent them from needing to load the marbles by hand.  I Googled “marble pump”.  No, seriously – “Google” marble pump.  You will find what I found.  This presented the solution to handling the marbles.  You turn the crank and it pumps marbles to the top.
 
Once the marbles get to the top they fall into a “square funnel” where they go down one of three “circuits” – the “rickety rack”, the “spiral with a xylophone”, or the “bells and spinning wheels”.
 
When they get to the bottom, they fall into a pan and then get fed back into the pump.  There is a large box of marbles under the pump.  It appears the marbles are fed from this box into the pump, but really the box of marbles is just weight so the machine will not fall over, if someone would try and climb it to see the marbles fall into the square funnel.
 
There are about 100 marbles in the machine.  Most are in the square walnut pipe going up from the pump to the funnel.  They move up from the pump two at a time with each turn of the crank and fall into the funnel.  I get the best action from the machine by allowing only 15 or 20 marbles in the machine at one time.  The other 80 to 85 marbles are in the walnut pipe getting pumped to the funnel.  The children find out very quickly that it does no good to turn the handle (pump the machine), if there are no marbles in the pan waiting to enter the pump.
 
Oh, the “Milton” name?  Sure.  When she got to the letter “M”, I would take Milton to school and introduce him.  He would stay at school all year and I would bring him home at the end of the school year – repeat next year. 
 
I have rebuilt the pump three times.  The first time they broke the handle, the second time they wore out the pump (I replaced the interior parts with maple and ebony to prevent wear.), and the last time they wore out the bearings in the pump (I replaced them with sealed ball bearings.)
 
Milton was made (born?) in 2001.  He is 63” tall and 20” square.  He weighs about 65 pounds.  He does not go to school anymore now that my wife is retired.  (Actually, now that I think about it, he would have graduated a couple of years ago anyway.)  He just sits in our front entry.
 
Our great-nephew was visiting this weekend.  I heard Milton “dinging and clattering”, as I was upstairs on the computer yesterday.

I could tell you more - but then there wouldn't be any room for this -



or this -



or this -



Thanks for your interest.

[6270_Productions]

this guy has many interesting ones
https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswan...ery=marble

See - now you won't have to "Google" marble pump.




Milton's heart.